Team Tampa Bay's Take with Joey Johnston: SEC Tournament Saturday

By Joey Johnston

When Commissioner Greg Sankey left Amalie Arena on Friday night — with the noise of a packed house for Kentucky-Vanderbilt still ringing in his ears — he noticed a streetcar whizzing nearby, heading to Ybor City.

“It was filled with basketball fans and there were smiles all around,’’ Sankey said Saturday afternoon. “That’s one way to judge an event. People were having a great time.’’

Sankey said Tampa’s presentation of the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament has been executed with near-perfect efficiency. He praised the work of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission and said the event has been an appropriate exclamation point for the league’s high-performance season.

“It has been absolutely great and perfect timing for us … it’s snowing in Nashville today,’’ Sankey said with a smile.

The SEC has a long-term agreement to hold its men’s basketball tournament through the 2035 season at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.

“We’re in Nashville for while, because of the central location, but I think we have a strong enough relationship (with Tampa) to explore the possibilities for a league that’s only going to get stronger as time goes on,’’ Sankey said. “Although it still pains me to have lost the national championship game in Tampa (when Clemson defeated SEC team Alabama in the 2017 College Football Playoff championship game at Raymond James Stadium).

“Hopefully, when we debrief with Rob (Higgins, executive director of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission) and his staff, everyone will feel good about the tournament. With the way they responded with a presence around downtown, the space we had activated for our network, the FanFare activity, the fact that I had a 1905 salad (from the Columbia Restaurant) before the game … all those things are very, very positive.’’

Tampa also hosted the 2009 SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament.

“Bad economy and the basketball wasn’t very good,’’ Sankey said. “This one was much more in line with what Tampa deserves.’’

It’s Awesome, Baby!

Iconic ESPN basketball broadcaster Dick Vitale was honored before Saturday’s semifinals began during an on-court ceremony, when he was presented a basketball by Sankey and fans showered him with a heartfelt standing ovation.

Vitale, 82, a Lakewood Ranch resident, was honored for his contributions to basketball, the SEC and the fight against cancer. He has been waging his own battle against cancer, undergoing treatment for lymphoma after having surgery to remove melanoma. It has been a public fight as Vitale posts nearly daily updates on his social media platforms.

Vitale, who has been with ESPN since the network began in 1979, stopped by the ESPN broadcast position at Amalie Arena’s mid-court area to visit with his network colleagues. He hasn’t called a college basketball game since Baylor-Villanova in mid-December. Doctors ordered him to rest his voice after they discovered pre-cancerous dysplasia on his vocal chords, which required surgery.

“I reached out to him months ago when his health challenges emerged,’’ Sankey said. “Dan Leibovitz, our associate commissioner for men’s basketball, said, ‘He lives near Tampa. We should see if he can come out and be part of basketball again.’ We want to be an encouragement to him. In his own way, he’s an encouragement to us.’’

Aggies, Vols Prevail

No. 8-seeded Texas A&M and No. 2 Tennessee will be looking to end decades of frustration in Sunday’s championship game of the SEC Tournament.

Texas A&M hasn’t won a conference title in men’s basketball since 1987 when it was a member of the Southwest Conference (the Aggies also won the SWC in 1980). Meanwhile, Tennessee hasn’t won an SEC Tournament championship since 1979 (the first year of the modern era because the tournament was brought back after the league didn’t hold the event from 1953-78).

The Aggies (23-11) earned their spot in the title game with a convincing 82-64 victory against the No. 5 Arkansas Razorbacks, giving Texas A&M its third SEC Tournament win in three days and likely ending the debate over whether they are NCAA Tournament-worthy. The Aggies should now be securely in the NCAA’s 68-team field.

The Vols (25-7) eliminated No. 3 Kentucky 69-62, giving Tennessee coach Rick Barnes a 10-7 record against the Wildcats in his seven seasons. The door was cracked ajar for Kentucky to make a run at an NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed, but Saturday’s defeat might have slammed that door shut.

Kentucky had star center Oscar Tshiebwe foul out and trailed by 12 points with 3:17 remaining, but cut it to three, 65-62, at the 1:31 mark. From that point, though, the Wildcats missed four 3-pointers and the Vols iced it with three made free throws. Overall, Kentucky was 2-for-20 from 3-point range.

The Vols got 19 points from freshman guard Kennedy Chandler, who was playing with a sore ankle and had two big buckets after Kentucky had cut it to eight points in the late going.

“It was exactly what both teams thought it would be — a hard-fought game from start to finish,’’ Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “I’ve said it before. Kentucky is as good a team as anybody in the country.’’

“Coach has been telling us to have a championship mindset with every game,’’ Chandler said. “And that’s what we have done.’’

Tennessee has won 10 of its last 11 games.

Texas A&M got an all-around excellent performance from Quenton Jackson, who had 20 points, six assists, five rebounds and four steals. Just like its victories against No. 9 Florida and No. 1 Auburn, the Aggies opened up a double-digit lead in the first time. Once again, they had to fight off a comeback. Arkansas, which won 14 of its last 16 games to end the regular season, cut it to 47-44. But the Aggies fought back and opened up an 11-point advantage over the next three minutes.

The Aggies have won eight of their last nine games after suffering an eight-game losing streak.

“It’s a testament of everything we have done since the year started, all the work that we put in from boot camp to individuals to practice to all of that,’’ Jackson said.

Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams said his undersized team has been battling uphill all season. Why should the SEC Tournament be any different?

“Our only chance is to be an overachiever and overcomer,’’ Williams said.

As for the Razorbacks, Coach Eric Musselman said, “Today was not what Arkansas has been over the (last) two months.’’

Sunday’s Championship Game

No. 2 Tennessee (25-7) vs. No. 8 Texas A&M (23-11) — Tennessee has won four SEC Tournament championships (1936, 1941, 1943 and 1979). It has reached the title game 12 times, as recently as 2018 (St. Louis) and 2019 (Nashville), along with a 2009 title-game defeat against Mississippi State in 2009 (Tampa). Texas A&M, which joined the SEC in the 2012-13 school year, has made the championship game one previous time (2016, a loss against Kentucky). Home-standing Tennessee won the regular-season meeting 90-80 by shooting 57 percent in the second half. The Vols never trailed in the game and five players scored in double figures, led by freshman guard Kennedy Chandler (16 points). Texas A&M was paced by freshman Wade Taylor IV, who had 19 points.